Ask Ellen: Why are invasive species so bad?
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Nature has a way of making a way. Invasive species arrive in a new area and explode in population. The rapid population growth can put a strain on ecosystems that were in place before the newcomer’s arrival.
Lake Effect: What changes scientists are seeing on Lake Michigan
What invasive species are there in Lake Michigan?
An invasive species can be a plant, animal or organism. While 180 species have been introduced into the Great Lakes by ships coming in from the St. Lawrence Seaway, only a few have produced a massive impact.
The most memorable and notable are sea lamprey, alewife, zebra mussels and quagga mussels. Each of these species rapidly overwhelmed Lake Michigan and completely upended the lake’s ecology and subsequently the fishing and tourism industry.
At the bottom of Lake Michigan, shipwrecks race against invasive species
In the 1940s, nightmarish-looking sea lamprey arrived in Lake Michigan, striking a lethal blow to lake trout. By the mid-1950s, the commercial lake trout industry on Lake Michigan became nearly extinct.
In the 1960s, the alewife arrived, exploding in droves in Lake Michigan. The fish were so plentiful they began dying in heaps and washing up on the shoreline in rotting piles. Bulldozers were needed to clear the stinking piles of dead, rotting fish off of the shoreline. To this day, salmon are being stocked into Lake Michigan to keep alewives in check and the fishing industry healthy.
Great Lakes team rolls out plan to fix mussel damage
Quagga mussels are largely to blame for what’s happening to the whitefish. The mussels are sucking up all the good algae that whitefish fry need to grow. This is leading to a hit in the whitefish population, with numbers in rapid decline.
Invasive species have the power to upend Lake Michigan and the businesses that rely on its stability. There is no way to completely stop an invasive species once it arrives. Sea lamprey, alewife, quagga and zebra mussels are all still present in Lake Michigan. This means prevention is the best way to provide stability and minimize economic and ecological loss.
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